Adsorption of multicomponent VOCs on various biomass-derived hierarchical porous carbon: A study on adsorption mechanism and competitive effect

Biomass-derived porous carbon materials are potential adsorbents for VOCs. In this work, biomass-derived ni-trogen-doped hierarchical porous carbons (NHPCs) were synthesized by a one-step pyrolysis activation combined with nitrogen doping method from several biomass wastes (corn straw, wheat stalk, bamboo, pine, and corncob). NHPCs have a hierarchical porous structure with micro-meso-macropores distribution, nitrogen doping, large specific surface area, and pore volume. The corncob derived carbon (NHPC-CC) has the best activation result as analyses showed that a lower ash content and higher total cellulose composition content of the biomass result in a better pore activation effect. Single and multi-component dynamic adsorption tests of typical VOCs (benzene, toluene, and chlorobenzene) were conducted on NHPCs in laboratory conditions (similar to 500 ppm). Promising VOC adsorption capacity and great adsorption kinetics with low mass transfer resistance were found on NHPCs. Correlation analysis showed that the high VOC adsorption capacity and great adsorption kinetics can be attributed to the large surface area of micro-mesopores and the mass transfer channels provided by meso-mac-ropores respectively. The competitive dynamic adsorption tests revealed that the VOC with lower saturated vapor pressure has more adsorption sites on the surface of micro-mesopores and stronger adsorption force, which results in the higher adsorption capacity and desorption caused by substitution reaction in VOCs competitive adsorption process. In detail, the process of toluene and chlorobenzene competitive adsorption was described. Besides, well recyclability of NHPC-CC was revealed as the VOCs adsorption capacity reductions were less than 10% after four adsorption-desorption cycles. All studies showed that the NHPC-CC could be potential adsorbent for VOCs in industrial process.

Automated summary

Biomass-derived nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbons (NHPCs) were synthesized using a one-step pyrolysis activation combined with nitrogen doping method. NHPCs possess a hierarchical porous structure with micro-meso-macropores distribution, nitrogen doping, large specific surface area, and pore volume. The NHPC-CC showed the best activation result due to the lower ash content and higher total cellulose composition content of the biomass. NHPCs demonstrated promising VOC adsorption capacity and great adsorption kinetics, attributed to the large surface area of micro-mesopores and the mass transfer channels provided by meso-macropores, respectively. The VOC with lower saturated vapor pressure exhibited higher adsorption capacity and desorption caused by substitution reaction in competitive adsorption process. NHPC-CC also showed excellent recyclability with less than 10% reduction in VOC adsorption capacity after four cycles. Overall, NHPC-CC could be a potential adsorbent for VOCs in industrial processes.